There is a need to measure cerebral blood flow during various medical events and procedures, because any disturbance to the flow of blood to the brain may cause injury to the function of the brain cells, and even death of brain cells if the disturbance is prolonged. Maintaining blood flow to the brain is especially important because brain cells are more vulnerable to a lack of oxygen than other cells, and because brain cells usually cannot regenerate following an injury.
A number of common situations may cause a decrease in the general blood flow to the brain, including arrhythmia, myocardial infarction, and traumatic hemorrhagic shock. A sudden increase in blood flow to the brain may also cause severe damage, and is especially likely to occur in newborn or premature babies, although such an increase may also occur in other patients with certain medical conditions, or during surgery. In all these cases, data regarding the quantity of blood flow in the brain, and the changes in flow rate, may be important in evaluating the risk of injury to the brain tissue and the efficacy of treatment. The availability of such data may enable the timely performance of various medical procedures to increase, decrease, or stabilize the cerebral blood flow, and prevent permanent damage to the brain.
In the absence of a simple means for direct and continuous monitoring of cerebral blood flow, information about changes in cerebral blood flow is inferred indirectly by monitoring clinical parameters which can be easily measured, such as blood pressure. But due to the different relation between blood pressure and cerebral blood flow in different medical conditions, there may be situations in which cerebral blood flow is inadequate even when blood pressure appears to be adequate. Cerebral blood flow may also be inferred indirectly by monitoring neurological function, but since neurological dysfunction is often irreversible by the time it is detected, it is more desirable to detect changes in cerebral blood flow directly, while its effects on brain function are still reversible.
Existing means for measuring cerebral blood flow are complex, expensive, and in some cases invasive, which limits their usefulness. Three methods that are presently used only in research are 1) injecting radioactive xenon into the cervical carotid arteries and observing the radiation it emits as it spreads throughout the brain; 2) positron emission tomography, also based on the injection of radioactive material; and 3) magnetic resonance angiography, performed using a room-sized, expensive, magnetic resonance imaging system, and requiring several minutes to give results. These three methods can only be carried out in a hospital or other center that has the specialized equipment available, and even in a hospital setting it is not practical to monitor patients continuously using these methods.
A fourth method, trans-cranial Doppler (TCD) uses ultrasound, is not invasive and gives immediate results. However, TCD fails to give a correct determination of blood flow in about 15% of patients, due to the difficulty of passing sound waves through the cranium, and it requires great skill by professionals who have undergone prolonged training and practice in performing the test and deciphering the results. Another disadvantage of TCD is that it measures only regional blood flow in the brain, and does not measure global blood flow. Doppler ultrasound may also be used to measure blood flow in the carotid arteries, providing an estimate of blood flow to the head, but not specifically to the brain, and not including blood flow to the head through the vertebral arteries, which is difficult to measure by ultrasound because of their proximity to the vertebrae.
Two additional techniques that are used, generally in research, to measure blood flow in the head and in other parts of the body are electric impedance plethysmography (IPG) and photoplethysmography (PPG). U.S. Pat. No. 6,819,950, to Mills, describes the use of PPG to detect carotid stenosis, among other conditions. U.S. Pat. No. 5,694,939, to Cowings, describes biofeedback techniques for controlling blood pressure, which include the use of IPG in the lower leg and PPG in the finger. U.S. Pat. No. 5,396,893, to Oberg et al, states that PPG is superior to IPG for monitoring patients' cardiac and respiration rates. U.S. Pat. No. 6,832,113, to Belalcazar, describes the use of either IPG or PPG to measure blood flow, for purposes of optimizing a cardiac pacemaker. U.S. Pat. No. 6,169,914, to Hovland et al, describes the use of various types of sensors, including IPG and PPG, for monitoring female sexual arousal with a vaginal probe, and describes using different types of sensors in combination.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,413,223, to Yang et al, describes a probe, used on the finger, which contains two PPG sensors and one IPG sensors. The combined data from the three sensors, analyzed using a mathematical model of arterial blood flow, provides a more accurate measurement of blood flow than would be obtained by using IPG or PPG alone.
J. H. Seipel and J. E. Floam, in J. Clinical Pharmacology 15, 144-154 (1975) present the results of a clinical study of the effects of a drug, betahistidine, on cerebral, cranial, scalp and calf blood circulation. Rheoencephalography (REG), a form of IPG, was used to measure the amplitude of cerebral blood flow.
The disclosures of all of the above mentioned patents and publication are incorporated herein by reference.